Say Cheese
Recap It is Lily's 32nd birthday, and, as one who really loves her own birthday, she wakes herself up at midnight for the sole purpose of announcing that it is officially her birthday before falling asleep once again. Later in the morning, Marshall brings her breakfast in bed with its own theme, Spanish Interlude, complete with a guitarist and a picture of the "lyrical rolling hills of northern Spain" in the window. One of Lily's first presents to be opened is a new digital camera with naked pictures of Marshall inside. As she enjoys taking pictures all the time, Barney and Robin cringe as they remember all of the group shots Lily took over the years and the situations that happened before the pictures were taken. Ted arrives at the door with his new girlfriend, Amanda, who has volunteered to bake Lily's cake. The group plays parlor games designed to test their knowledge of Lily, but Amanda does not know anything about her. Lily gathers the gang together for their annual group photo while Amanda prepares the birthday cake in the kitchen, in an attempt to take the photo without Amanda. Ted objects, so Lily brings out a photo album showing pictures from past events where Ted has brought his dates along. Lily challenges Ted to name them, but he fails to remember a single one. Robin notices that Barney's pose is exactly the same in all of the photographs. Barney explains that he never takes a bad picture. He compares and contrasts his photo presence with Marshall's; while Barney always looks "drop dead, stone cold amazing," Marshall "just looks dead, stoned, and cold". Robin tries to take candid pictures of Barney, but is shocked to see his usual pose in all the pictures. Ted calls Lily a "birthday brat", not understanding why she is so upset over ruining "a couple of pictures". Lily reminds him of their trip to Paris: It was initially reserved for only her and Marshall, but Ted came along with Karen. Karen and Ted got in a fight and broke up before the plane landed. Karen's presence in Paris ruined the whole trip. Ted apologizes for always ruining their group shots, but explains that he's always trying to find "The One". Robin admits not inviting Don because some of the gang's important events are not ideal to bring new friends. Ted notes that Robin is Lily's best friend, but she began as one of Ted's "random skanks", Lily countering that Robin is the "skanky exception to the skanky rule". Ted accepts that Amanda does not have to be in the group photo, but asks Lily to give her a chance. When Amanda reveals the birthday cake, which reads "Happy 42nd Birthday, Lori", Marshall gets angry and kicks Amanda out of the apartment. Marshall explains he has become cynical because every time Ted breaks up with a girl, Marshall is there to pick up the pieces and console the girl. Ted comments that all of the photos in Lily's photo album show no signs of the fights and disagreements that happened only moments before they were taken. Lily turns the page to the first photo that she, Marshall, and Ted had taken together back in college, a result of Ted inviting her into the picture because he believed that her and Marshall's relationship would last. Lily apologizes to Ted and agrees to call back Amanda. When the time comes for the group photo, Robin tricks Barney into removing his suit jacket just before the picture is taken, but the finished product shows Barney in his usual pose, much to Robin's dismay. At Lily's 33rd birthday, Lily asks Ted to identify Amanda in the photo album, but he cannot remember her name. As they gather for the group photo, Robin offers Barney some dip. Barney realizes too late the dip is cilantro, which he is allergic to, and begins to sneeze. Finally, Robin catches Barney in a compromising position for a bad photograph. Continuity *In , Robin invites Bob, her current boyfriend, to their first group Thanksgiving dinner, which causes Lily to complain that Bob will ruin the intimacy of their night and will ruin all their photos. Lily made almost identical complaints in this episode about Ted bringing Amanda, his current girlfriend. *Ted mentions how Robin started as one of his "random skanks". In , Marshall complains about Ted inviting Robin to the Super Bowl and claims she'll mess up the group photo. *One of the events Lily chronicles with her camera is Robin passing her citizenship test in accordance with events in **During this photographing, Lily claims she doesn't want Barney and Robin to look like a couple because they aren't going to last. The next two episodes, and , it is revealed they are having relationship issues. *Lily (and Marshall) previously showed signs of loving in the episode . *Ted mentions Lily's "you're dead to me look" which first surfaced in . *On the flight to Paris, Marshall reads the "How to Win a Marathon" book, the same one he used to train for the New York City Marathon in . Also the word marathon was said multiple times in the episode. *Robin recalls being a guest at a Japanese wedding while still living in Japan, coinciding with the episode . *Lily's summer studying in Paris first mentioned in . *When Ted talks about how Lily and Marshall were in a fight on Halloween, he mentions it was because Lily didn't want to dress up as a penguin. When Marshall is confronted with this, he tells Robin that "She called penguins lame, I mean, come on, penguins!" referencing Robin's love for penguins previously stated by Ted in . Gallery mctagp.PNG|One of Marshall's and Lily's photos in which Marshall cannot take a good picture tr.PNG|One of Ted girlfriends ruining a groupshot with Slash rwi.PNG|Robin being in a Japanese wedding picture bc1.PNG|Lily's Birthday cake bftabphoto.PNG|Barney finally taking a bad photo, while Marshall does the same... Memorable Quotes Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *In , Future Ted explains how in their sophomore year (second year) of college (1998) they began a tradition of picking up each other from the airport, carrying a handmade sign, wearing a chauffeur's hat, and bringing back local beer from wherever they flew in from, which they continued to do for the next eleven years (from March 1998 to 2009). However in this episode, Lily explains how in their junior year of college (1999), she picked Marshall up from the airport without a chauffeur's hat, and Marshall did not bring beer. *In , Ted breaks up with Natalie in a restaurant, so in this episode Natalie appears again in the living room when Marshall mentioned Ted that he is his ´break up cleaning´ *When the Japanese parents of Robin's ex Japanese boyfriend ask "name that bitch" in Japanese, he answers with "umm" instead of "eto". In Japan, "umm" is said as "eto". *Marshall is shown to be incapable of keeping his eyes open in a photo. However, this problem was not seen in his photo montages during . *In a funeral picture, Lily is showing Barney he is wearing a suit, while in , he says that he never wears a suit at a funeral. Allusions and Outside References *Marshall creates the game Lilial Pursuit for her birthday, a homemade version of . *The group takes a picture with rock guitarist at MacLaren's but the photo is ruined by another one of Ted's girlfriends. She blocks out Slash in the photo so that only his curly black hair and top hat can be seen. *Barney, while trying to explain why the camera loves him, mentions that the camera wants to "pop in an CD." *Lily knows the dialogue of word for word; she first saw the film shortly after her parents broke up. *As Robin is trying to take a bad picture of Barney, she says, "Smile, you son of a bitch!", a quote from . *During Marshall's flashback of Lily and Ted taking their first picture together in college, Marshall is wearing a t-shirt with an " " print, referencing the song by . Music *Brique - Les Cautionneurs Other Notes *Emily, Laloni, Isabel, unnamed girl from Lily's appendix surgery, and unnamed yoga instructor are all previous girls Ted dated who are mentioned in this episode. Guests * - Natalie * - Amanda *Laura Prepon - Karen *Gina Comparetto - Strawberry *Asia De Marcos - Japanese Wife *Blake Hogue - Neighbor *Tanisha Lynn - Esme *Gaku Space - Robin's Date *Jessica Vilchis - Rosalie Reception Donna Bowman of rated the episode with a grade B+. http://www.avclub.com/articles/say-cheese,39446/ Cindy McLennan of rated the episode with a grade A-. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/how-i-met-your-mother/say-cheese-1.php Amanda Sloane Murray of gave the episode 7.8 out of 10. http://tv.ign.com/articles/107/1079247p1.html Joel Keller of was less impressed, describing the episode as "half-baked." He wrote that the main premise needed to be explored further, that the B stories were underdeveloped, and that the episode left him dissatisfied. http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/03/22/how-i-met-your-mother-say-cheese-recap/ Vlada Gelman of the enjoyed seeing an episode where the whole group was together in the same room, nicely tied together with flashbacks and flashforwards. Gelman suggests Lily just needs to learn to use the "skank removal tool" in . http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/03/how-i-met-your-mother-the-uninvited-guest.html References External Links * * * Category:Episodes Category:Season 5